Making your own nut milk at home is great for a number of reasons – it’s more economical, you can be certain that the only things going into the milk are nuts and water (ie none of the additives or sugars that are added to some commercially produced varieties!) and importantly, it tastes great. One of the downsides however can be that you are left with a large amount of leftover pulp from the nuts which is quite bland in flavour and has a somewhat mushy texture – not the most appealing of ingredients!
I try to limit the amount of food waste we have, so my nut pulp always gets used up in some way or another. Over the years, I have produced some delicious – and some not so delicious! – creations using the leftover nut milk pulp. Through my trial and error approach, I have learnt a few lessons along the way
- Always squeeze out as much excess milk out as possible; the drier the pulp, the better it will work – especially if you’re going to be drying it out to turn into flour, or using it in baking
- On the other hand, if you’re using the pulp to make a ricotta-style “cheese”, you can leave the pulp a little damp, or alternatively add in a little additional milk a tablespoon at a time
- When using it to create a sweet treat such as a bliss ball, cookie or brownie, I find that it works best when either some nut meal or butter is added along with the pulp. This helps both in terms of consistency and flavour.
- For raw treats, I also really like to add something with a little texture as otherwise I find it to be a bit too soft and mushy – some crushed nuts, seeds or cacao nibs work really well here.
My go-to recipe at the moment are these chocolate cookies – they combination of almond meal and nut pulp gives them a soft, fudgey texture which really lends well to the rich chocolate flavour. I like to add in some cacao nibs for an extra chocolate hit, but I imagine chocolate chips or melted chocolate drizzled over the top would be really tasty too.
- ½ cup nut milk pulp
- ¼ cup almond meal
- 1 Tbsp nut butter
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
- 2 Tbsp raw honey
- 1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
- ⅛ tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbsp each cacao nibs and chopped sunflower seeds, optional
- Preheat oven to 180 C || 355 F
- In a large bowl, combine the melted coconut oil, honey and nut butter and mix to form a paste. Add the pulp, almond meal, cacao and salt and use a fork to mash the ingredients together until well combined.
- Stir through the cacao nibs and seeds if using.
- Roll the mixture into small-ish balls and then flatten down onto a lined tray with a fork.
- Bake 10 - 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray once cooked.
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Okay, so I’ve made mostly not-so-delicious creations with my leftover nut pulp over the years. ;-) I still struggle finding good recipes and enjoying the outcome. But your recipe is giving me hope. Have you found that certain nuts make for tastier nut pulp and therefore tastier cookies, in your case here?
These look so adorable! I love making cookies from nut milk pulp so I’m definitely giving these a go! xx
I have to start making my own nut milk! Love the idea of using the pulp afterwards
This is a genius idea! I love the way you plated the cookies!
Thanks so much Cassie x
Inspiring recipe! Can I freeze the nut milk pulp till I am ready to make the cookies?
Hi Iwona – yes, you definitely can, I usually freeze mine until I have a larger amount and then bake a bigger batch or cookies or press it into a slice :)
These are so delicious and fudgey. I was pleasantly surprised, given my past failed attempts at baking with nut milk pulp. These will become my go-to recipe for sure!
These sound like a good idea for using the pulp!! I never really knew what to do with it and I’ll definitely have to give this a try! For the almond meal, I only have flour available, can I use that instead? Or make oat flour??
Hi Cedar, yes, almond flour can be used as a substitute for almond meal, they are very similar :)
I’m so glad I found this beautiful recipe Dearna! I made them with substitutes based on I had on hand – pecan milk pulp, cashew butter, hazelnut meal, dutch cocoa, and ghee (in place of coconut oil). They’re perfect and delicious! Just like the photos. I’ll be making these again and again. Thank you thank you!